Now this is a Texas winter....

Warm and sunny days, with temperatures in the 60s and getting closer to 70 every day.  So warm that some of the ladybug eggs are hatching and they're flying around the front porch.  I've no idea where the ladybug nests are, but when the weather gets warm, those little eggs must open up from the heat and out come these teeny ladybugs.  Last Spring, there were so many ladybugs on the porch columns that it looked as if we had painted the white columns with red polka-dots.

I haven't seen any more scorpions since that big one in the garage the other day, but now that the weather is warming up even more, I'm being cautious about snakes.  That's one thing that I don't want to be surprised with.... any kind of snake, whether it's poisonous or not.

The guys who cut the hay were here yesterday.  They had cut the hay down a couple of weeks ago, but then we had soaking rains, and then the frigid cold, so the cut hay was just scattered on the property, laying right where it had fallen.  Yesterday, they came by with this huge raking machine that gathers the hay into big piles as they pull it through the fields. My guess is that they'll come back either today or tomorrow with the baling machine, and then we'll have huge round bales in the fields until they come with yet another machine to pick those up and cart them away.  The first time the hay was cut in our fields, my husband and I sat on the porch and watched the whole process.  My husband took pictures, which we sent to family up north.  And when the first bales were in the pastures, I stood next to one of those huge bales and sent that photo to my cousins.  ("You're wearing jeans and boots? Boots without heels?!?")  Now when the hay-guys come here, it's just another day on the ranch:  "The guys are out there cutting the hay..... I hope the wind doesn't blow the dust up on the porch furniture."

We're enjoying these warm sunny days...... and we don't miss the frigid nights.  However.... the weather wizards on the local news are telling us that another cold front is going to blow down here from Canada, and could arrive just in time for Christmas.  Well, bah humbug to that.